How To Write Right

by Gerard M Blair
Writing is an essential skill upon which all engineers and managers rely. This article
.outlines simple design principles for engineering's predominate product: paper
."Sex, romance, thrills, burlesque, satire, bass ... most enjoyable"
Here is everything one expects from this author but thricefold and three times"
."as entertaining as anything he has written before
A wonderful tissue of outrageous coincidences and correspondences, teasing"
."elevations of suspense and delayed climaxes
(reviews of Small World by David Lodge)
This has nothing to do with engineering writing. No engineering report will ever get
such reviews. The most significant point about engineering writing is that it is totally
different from the writing most people were taught - and if you do not recognize and
understand this difference, then your engineering writing will always miss the mark.
However, this article outlines a methodical approach to writing which will enable
.anyone to produce great works of engineering literature
?Why Worry
Writing is the major means of communication within an organisation; paper is thought
to be the major product of professional engineers; some estimate that up to 30% of
work-time is engaged in written communication. Thus it is absolutely vital for you as
a Professional Engineer to actively develop the skill of writing; not only because of
the time involved in writing, but also because your project's success may depend upon
it. Indeed, since so much of the communication between you and more senior
.management occurs in writing, your whole career may depend upon its quality
Two Roles
:In an industrial context, writing has two major roles
it clarifies - for both writer and reader•
it conveys information•
.It is this deliberate, dual aim which should form the focus for all your writing activity
There are many uses for paper within an organization; some are inefficient - but the
power of paper must not be ignored because of that. In relation to a project,
documentation provides a means to clarify and explain on-going development, and to
plan the next stages. Memoranda are a simple mechanism for suggestions,
instructions, and general organisation. The minutes of a meeting form a permanent
.and definitive record
Writing is a central part of any design activity. Quality is improved since writing an
explanation of the design, forces the designer to consider and explore it fully. For
instance, the simple procedure of insisting upon written test-plans forces the designer
to address the issue. Designs which work just "because they do" will fail later; designs
whose operation is explained in writing may also fail, but the repair will be far
.quicker since the (documented) design is understood
If you are having trouble expressing an idea, write it down; you (and possibly others)
will then understand it. It may take you a long time to explain something "off the
 cuff", but if you have explained it first to yourself by writing it down - the reader can
study your logic not just once but repeatedly, and the information is efficiently
.conveyed
Forget the Past
Professional writing has very little to do with the composition and literature learnt at
school: the objectives are different, the audience has different needs, and the rewards
in engineering can be far greater. As engineers, we write for very distinct and
.restricted purposes, which are best achieved through simplicity
English at school has two distinct foci: the analysis and appreciation of the great
works of literature, and the display of knowledge. It is all a question of aim. A novel
entertains. It forces the reader to want to know: what happens next. On the other hand,
an engineering report is primarily designed to convey information. The engineer's job
is helped if the report is interesting; but time is short and the sooner the meat of the
document is reached, the better. The novel would start: "The dog grew ill from
howling so ..."; the engineer's report would start (and probably end): "The butler
."killed Sir John with a twelve inch carving knife
In school we are taught to display knowledge. The more information and argument,
the more marks. In industry, it is totally different. Here the wise engineer must extract
only the significant information and support it with only the minimum-necessary
argument. The expertise is used to filter the information and so to remove inessential
noise. The engineer as expert provides the answers to problems, not an exposition of
past and present knowledge: we use our knowledge to focus upon the important
.points
For the Future
:When you approach any document, follow this simple procedure
Establish the AIM.1
Consider the READER.2
Devise the STRUCTURE.3
DRAFT the text.4
EDIT and REVISE.5
That is it. For the rest of this article, we will expand upon these points and explain
some techniques to make the document effective and efficient - but these five stages
.(all of them) are what you need to remember
Aim
You start with your aim. Every document must have a single aim - a specific,
specified reason for being written. If you can not think of one, do something useful
.instead; if you can not decide what the document should achieve, it will not achieve it
Once you have established your aim, you must then decide what information is
necessary in achieving that aim. The reader wants to find the outcome of your
thoughts: apply your expertise to the available information, pick out the very-few
.facts which are relevant, and state them precisely and concisely
The Reader
A document tells somebody something. As the writer, you have to decide what to tell
.and how best to tell it to the particular audience; you must consider the reader
:There are three considerations
 .What they already know affects what you can leave out•
.What they need to know determines what you include•
Wha•
.t they want to know suggests the order and emphasis of your writing
For instance, in a products proposal, marketing will want to see the products
differentiation and niche in the market place; finance will be interested in projected
development costs, profit margins and risk analysis; and R&D will want the technical
details of the design. To be most effective, you may need to produce three different
.reports for the three different audiences
The key point, however, is that writing is about conveying information - conveying;
that means it has to get there. Your writing must be right for the reader, or it will lost
.on its journey; you must focus upon enabling the reader's access to the information
Structure
Writing is very powerful - and for this reason, it can be exploited in engineering. The
power comes from its potential as an efficient and effective means of communication;
the power is derived from order and clarity. Structure is used to present the
.information so that it is more accessible to the reader
In all comes down to the problem of the short attention span. You have to provide the
information in small manageable chunks, and to use the structure of the document to
maintain the context. As engineers, this is easy since we are used to performing
hierarchical decomposition of designs - and the same procedure can be applied to
.writing a document
While still considering the aim and the reader, the document is broken down into
distinct sections which can be written (and read) separately. These sections are then
each further decomposed into subsections (and sub-subsections) until you arrive at
.simple, small units of information - which are expressed as a paragraph, or a diagram
Every paragraph in your document should justify itself; it should serve a purpose, or
be removed. A paragraph should convey a single idea. There should be a statement of
:that key idea and (possibly) some of the following
a development of the idea•
an explanation or analogy•
an illustration•
support with evidence•
contextual links to reinforce the structure•
As engineers, though, you are allowed to avoid words entirely in places; diagrams are
often much better than written text. Whole reports can be written with them almost
exclusively and you should always consider using one in preference to a paragraph.
Not only do diagrams convey some information more effectively, but often they assist
in the analysis and interpretation of the data. For instance, a pie chart gives a quicker
comparison than a list of numbers; a simple bar chart is far more intelligible than the
numbers it represents. The only problem with diagrams is the writer often places less
effort in their design than their information-content merits - and so some is lost or
obscure. They must be given due care: add informative labels and titles, highlight any
.key entries, remove unnecessary information
Draft, Revise and Edit
When you have decided what to say, to whom you are saying it, and how to structure
it; say it - and then check it for clarity and effectiveness. The time spent doing this
will be far less than the time wasted by other people struggling with the document
.otherwise
The following are a few points to consider as you wield the red pen over your newly
.created opus
Layout
The main difference between written and verbal communication is that the reader can
choose and re-read the various sections, whereas the listener receives information in
the sequence determined by the speaker. Layout should be used to make the structure
.plain, and so more effective: it acts as a guide to the reader
Suppose you have three main points to make; do not hide them within simple text -
make them obvious. Make it so that the reader's eye jumps straight to them on the
:page. For instance, the key to effective layout is to use
informative titles•
white space•
variety•
.Another way to make a point obvious is to use a different font
Style
People in business do not have the time to marvel at your florid turn off phrase or
incessant illiteration. They want to know what the document is about and (possibly)
.what it says; there is no real interest in style, except for ease of access
In some articles a summary can be obtained by reading the first sentence of each
paragraph. The remainder of each paragraph is simply an expansion upon, or
explanation of, the initial sentence. In other writing, the topic is given first in a
summary form, and then successively repeated with greater detail each time. This is
.the pyramid structure favoured by newspapers
A really short and simple document is bound to be read. This has lead to the "memo
culture" in which every communication is condensed to one side of A4. Longer
.documents need to justify themselves to their readers' attention
The Beginning
.Let us imagine the reader. Let us call her Ms X
Ms X has a lot to do today: she has a meeting tomorrow morning with the regional
VP, a call to make to the German design office, several letters to dictate concerning
safety regulations, and this months process-data has failed to reach her. She is busy
and distracted. You have possibly 20 seconds for your document to justify itself to
her. If by then it has not explained itself and convinced her that she needs to read it -
Ms X will tackle something else. If Ms X is a good manager, she will insist on a
.(rewrite; if not, the document may never be read. action
Thus the beginning of your document is crucial. It must be obvious to the reader at
once what the document is about, and why it should be read. You need to catch the
readers attention but with greater subtlety than this article; few engineering reports
.can begin with the word sex
Unlike a novel, the engineering document must not contain "teasing elevations of
suspense". Take your "aim", and either state it or achieve it by the end of the first
.paragraph
 For instance, if you have been evaluating a new software package for possible
purchase then your reports might begin: "Having evaluated the McBlair Design Suite,
."... I recommend that
Punctuation
Punctuation is used to clarify meaning and to highlight structure. It can also remove
ambiguity: a cross section of customers can be rendered less frightening simply by
.(adding a hyphen (a cross-section of customers
Engineers tend not to punctuate - which deprives us of this simple tool. Despite what
some remember from school, punctuation has simple rules which lead to elegance and
easy interpretation. If you want a summary of punctuation, try The Concise Oxford
Dictionary (1990); and if you want a full treatise, complete with worked examples (of
.varying degrees of skill), read You Have A Point There by Eric Partridge
For now, let us look at two uses of two punctuation marks. If you do not habitually
use these already, add them to your repertoire by deliberately looking for
.opportunities in your next piece of writing
:The two most common uses of the Colon are
To introduce a list which explains, or provides the information promised in, the (1
.previous clause
.A manager needs two planning tools: prescience and a prayer
To separate main clauses where the second is a step forward from the first: (2
statement to example, statement to explanation, cause to effect, introduction to main
.point
.To err is human: we use computers
:The two most common uses of the Semicolon are
:to unite sentences that are closely associated, complementary or parallel (1
.Writing is a skill; one must practise to improve a skill
.Engineers engineer; accountants account for the cost
to act as a stronger comma, either for emphasis or to establish a hierarchy (2
.The report was a masterpiece; of deception and false promises
.The teams were Tom, Dick and Harry; and Mandy, Martha and Mary
Spelling
For some, spelling is a constant problem. In the last analysis, incorrect speling
distracts the reader and detracts from the authority of the author. Computer spell-
checking programmes provide great assistance, especially when supported by a good
dictionary. Chronic spellers should always maintain a (preferably alphabetical) list of
corrected errors, and try to learn new rules (and exceptions!). For instance (in British
English) advice-advise, device-devise, licence-license, practice-practise each follow
.the same pattern: the -ice is a noun, the -ise is a verb
Simple Errors
For important documents, there is nothing better than a good, old-fashioned proof-
read. As an example, the following comes from a national advertising campaign/quiz
:run by a famous maker of Champagne
?Question 3: Which Country has one the Triple Crown the most times
Won understands the error, but is not impressed by the quality of that company's
.product
 Sentence Length
Avoid long sentences. We tend to associate "unit of information" with "a sentence".
Consequently when reading, we process the information when we reach the full stop.
If the sentence is too long, we lose the information either because of our limited
attention span or because the information was poorly decomposed to start with and
might, perhaps, have been broken up into smaller, or possibly better punctuated,
sentences which would better have kept the attention of the reader and, by doing so,
.have reinforced the original message with greater clarity and simplicity
Word Length
It is inappropriate to utilize verbose and bombastic terminology when a suitable
alternative would be to: keep it simple. Often the long, complex word will not be
understood. Further, if the reader is distracted by the word itself, then less attention is
.paid to the meaning or to the information you wished to convey
Jargon
I believe that a digital human-computer-interface data-entry mechanism should be
.called a keyboard; I don't know why, but I do
Wordiness
When one is trying hard to write an impressive document, it is easy to slip into
grandiose formulae: words and phrases which sound significant but which convey
.nothing but noise
You must exterminate. So: "for the reason that" becomes "because"; "with regards to"
becomes "about"; "in view of the fact that" becomes "since"; "within a comparatively
."short period of time" becomes "soon
Often you can make a sentence sound more like spoken English simply be changing
the word order and adjusting the verb. So: "if the department experiences any
difficulties in the near future regarding attendance of meetings" becomes "if staff
cannnot attend the next few meetings". As a final check, read your document aloud; if
.it sounds stilted, change it
Conclusion
Writing is a complex tool, you need to train yourself in its use or a large proportion of
your activity will be grossly inefficient. You must reflect upon your writing lest it
.reflects badly upon you
If you want one message to take from this article, take this: the writing of a
professional engineer should be clear, complete and concise. If your document
.satisfies these three criteria, then it deserves to be read